Feed the Children Launches Summer Hunger Campaign and Expands Summer Feed & Read Program

USA Today

a day ago

Nonprofit works with partners to provide food and learning activities for children in four cities
As classes conclude and summer arrives, it should be a season of carefree days for children, filled with time spent with friends, pursuing their passions, and sparking their imaginations. However, for the 30 million children who depend on school meals, the end of the school year also signifies the end of this vital resource. For the 1 in 5 children in the U.S. who already experience food insecurity, this situation means they will have even less access to food during the summer months.
Feed the Children recognizes that hunger exists all around us, even when we don't see it. This is why the nonprofit is kicking off its summer hunger campaign to raise critical funds to help children during one of the hungriest times of the year. The organization is working to address summer hunger as its Summer Feed & Read program expands to a fourth city this summer in Denver, Colo., and returns to Oklahoma City, Okla., Memphis, Tenn., and Atlanta, Ga.
The Summer Feed & Read program provides nutritious meals to children during the summer months. These meals follow the USDA MyPlate guidelines and include a protein as the main course, along with servings of fruit, vegetables, grains, and milk. Additionally, the program addresses summer learning loss by providing books and promoting enrollment in summer learning opportunities and reading programs.
For many families, 2025 has brought ongoing challenges that will make this summer more difficult. Even as food prices continue to rise, several states opted not to participate in the USDA SUN Bucks (Summer EBT) program, including three of the four states where Feed the Children is implementing this summer's program – Georgia, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
'We hope that by focusing our impact in locations where the Summer EBT program is suspended, we can help close the meal gap for children experiencing the loss of school meals across the country,' said Colleen Ridenhour, Chief Growth and Strategy Officer at Feed the Children. 'We are dedicated to supporting children who need us the most and helping them stay engaged in learning this summer as part of our continued commitment to growth and our goal of improving support to the communities we serve.'
Many parents who rely on school meals to help stretch their food budget find summertime difficult to afford. Their children are home more of the time, and it's a challenge to buy all the meals a healthy child needs.
For parents like Renata, a mom of two children, Feed the Children can help bridge the gap during the summer months. 'There's a lot more budgeting in the summer,' Renata explained. 'Right now, with the economy, everything costs so much money. We plan our meals out a week in advance, and that's what we eat.'
Feed the Children helps by providing vital support to families who experience increased food insecurity during the summer months. The nonprofit is collaborating with partners to distribute nearly 30,000 pre-packaged lunch kits this summer. Additionally, Feed the Children offers household essentials, such as cleaning supplies and personal care items, which are not covered by SNAP benefits. This assistance helps parents and caregivers allocate more of their budget towards putting food on the table this summer.
In addition to food and essential household and personal care items, Feed the Children also provides books and encourages enrollment in local summer reading programs that keep kids' minds active. Research has shown that young students lose some of their achievement gains – up to one month of the school year's lessons – over the summer. This is especially true for their literacy when children don't read regularly during the summer. Students who struggle with literacy early often find it difficult to catch up and may continue to fall behind their peers, which can have lasting impacts on their academic success.
In Denver, Feed the Children teamed up with The a2 Milk Company TM to launch the Summer Feed & Read program, which will provide over 5,000 pre-packaged meals to students. The program will be hosted at Hope Communities , Denver Inner City Parish , and Alicia Sanchez Elementary .
As part of the Summer Feed & Read program in Oklahoma and Memphis, Feed the Children is teaming up with FedEx to provide 14,000 pre-packaged meal kits. Oklahoma community partners participating in the program, Luther Community Service Center and the YMCA of Greater Oklahoma City, will receive nearly 7,000 pre-packaged meals and books to support children this summer. The program will also provide 7,000 pre-packaged meals, books, and essentials to the Emmanuel Center and the Vance Avenue Youth Development Center in Memphis.
The nonprofit is partnering with Americold to provide lunch meal kits to more than 6,000 students for the Summer Feed & Read program in Atlanta, working with the Latin American Association and Fulton County Schools . The school district is also a partner for Feed the Children's Food & Essential Hub program that supports students with food, essential household items, personal care products, books, and school supplies throughout the school year.
'We are grateful for all our partners and their commitment to ensuring children in their community have the food they need this summer,' said Tamara Sandberg, Vice President of U.S. Program Development at Feed the Children. 'Kids can't be hungry for knowledge if they are hungry for food – we hope that by providing access to books we can reduce the summer slide in reading while also supporting children with healthy meals while school is out.'
View Feed the Children's Summer Feed & Read program video from previous Summer activities.
The organization encourages everyone to join its mission to end childhood hunger. Supporters can help fight summer hunger by donating at feedthechildren.org . This support will allow kids to enjoy the summer and will help make a difference in the lives of children and their families across the country.
About Feed the Children
Feed the Children is a leading nonprofit committed to ending childhood hunger. The organization believes that no child should go to bed hungry, and so it provides children and families in the U.S. and around the world with the food and essentials kids need to grow and thrive. Through its programs and partnerships, the organization feeds children today while helping their families and communities build resilient futures. In addition to food, Feed the Children distributes household and personal care items across the United States to help parents and caregivers maintain stable, food-secure households. Internationally, it expands access to nutritious meals, safe water, improved hygiene, and training in sustainable living. As responsible stewards of its resources, Feed the Children is driven to pursue innovative, holistic, and child-focused solutions to the complex challenges of hunger, food insecurity, and poverty.
For children everywhere, the organization believes that having enough to eat is a fundamental right. Learn how you can help create a world without childhood hunger at feedthechildren.org .
For more information:
Kelly Frey – 405-945-4064
[e-mail]
SOURCE: Feed the Children
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire